I’m Blake Kopcho, Oceans Campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, a national non-profit that works to protect threatened species and wild places. The Trump administration announced last week that they we’re undoing a policy that allowed the National Park Service to ban the sale of plastic water bottles in parks across the country. The WSJ editorial board wrote a piece in support of Trumps move - here is my response:
There’s no evidence to support the contention that a federal ban on restricting plastic water bottle sales in national parks would be “healthier and greener.” (“The Park Service’s Botched Bottle Ban,” Aug. 24) Neither of the two flawed studies cited supports that conclusion, despite claims by the bottled water industry. And the tons of plastic waste piling up in our oceans, landscapes, and landfills clearly call for action to adjust our throwaway consumer lifestyles. Single-use plastic water bottles are an obvious target because they are so easily replaced by tap water and reusable containers. Parks that have already gone bottled water free have dramatically reduced their plastic footprint, and park goers have seamlessly embraced the free, easily accessible tap water available at water-refill stations. The real reason for this top-down ban on local park districts setting their own policies – the kind of federal overreach usually opposed by the Journal – is pressure from Nestle and other powerful purveyors of bottled water. With Nestle’s former litigator now a top Interior Department official, denizens of the swamp that Trump promised to drain are now setting federal policy. Sad.